A Circle For Fans of Film and Comics

Off the Spinner Rack: May 1983

This month I take another trip back to my prime comic book collecting years via the Newsstand Time Machine at Mike’s Amazing World of Comics to revisit the comics that were on the spinner rack in May 1983. I’ve decided to make this a monthly feature on Fante’s Inferno, but instead of covering 12 months of a particular year, I’ll be choosing the years at random. 1983 was my peak collecting year as this month’s list will show. But as with previous month’s purchases I’ve featured on my site, there were still a few misses that I’ll need to hunt for at my next comic convention.

Alpha Flight #1

Tundra
Written and drawn by John Byrne

Amazing Spider-Man #243

Options
Written by Roger Stern, pencilled by John Romita Jr, inked by Dave Simons

Avengers #234

The Witch’s Tale
Written by Roger Stern, pencilled by Al Milgrom, inked by Joe Sinnott

Doctor Strange #60

Assault On Avengers Mansion
Written by Roger Stern, penciled by Dan Green, inked by Terry Austin

Fantastic Four #257

Fragments
Written and drawn by John Byrne

Fantastic Four Annual #17

Legacy
Written and drawn by John Byrne

The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #8 & #9

The Crystal Death (#8)
Written By David Michelinie, penciled by Kerry Gammil and Sam De La Rosa

The Gold Goddess (#9)
Written by David Michelinie, penciled by Dan Reed, inked by Danny Bulandi

Jon Sable Freelance #4

The Origin Part 2: Battlemask
Written and drawn by Mike Grell

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #8

Rom #45

Cry, the Mother Country
Written by Bill Mantlo, penciled by Sal Buscema, inked by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey

Thor #334

Runequest
Written by Alan Zelenetz, penciled by Mark Bright, inked by Vince Colletta

Uncanny X-Men #172

Scarlet In Glory
Written by Chris Claremont, penciled by Paul Smith, inked by Bob Wiacek

What If #40

What If Doctor Strange Had Not Become Master of the Mystic Arts?
Written by Peter Gillis, penciled by Jackson Guice, inked by Sam Grainger

Fourteen comics bought in May 1983 for $10.40 ($24.98 in 2016 dollars). Mike Grell’s Jon Sable Freelance wasn’t as easy to find as the others as our local comic shop didn’t carry it. That book warranted a monthly trip to Heroes World in White Plains, but it was worth it. Issue #4 was a powerful story and I continued to read Jon Sable Freelance for the next several years. Alpha Flight quickly became a favorite title of mine, and along with Fantastic Four and Uncanny X-Men were the three titles that I looked forward to the most each month. I started reading X-Men after Alpha Flight had been introduced in issue #120 and hadn’t picked up that back issue yet, so Alpha Flight #1 was my introduction to the team. That issue is still a favorite of mine and even today when I find a copy of Alpha Flight #1 at a comic convention, I’m still tempted to buy it even though I already own three copies.

Missed Opportunities:

Black Hood #2

The Dark Destroyer
Written by Gary Cohn, drawn by Pat Boyette

Candle In the Wind
Written by Rich Margopolous, drawn by Dan Spiegle

The Fox
Written and drawn by Alex Toth

The New Mutants #7

Flying Down to Rio
Written by Chris Claremont, penciled by Sal Buscema, inked by Bob McLeod

Star Wars #74

The Iskalon Effect
Written by Mary Jo Duffy, penciled by Ron Frenz, inked by Tom Palmer

Marvel Super Special #27

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Written by Archie Goodwin, art by Al Williamson, Carlos Garzon and Tom Palmer

Groo the Wanderer #4 (Pacific Comics)

The Turn of the Wheel
Written by Mark Evanier, drawn by Sergio Aragones

Black Hood #2 and the Red Circle titles weren’t on my radar back then, but I’m looking forward to finding a copy at a con one day just for Alex Toth’s story. New Mutants was another consistent purchase for us, but I’m not sure why I never picked up #7. By 1983 Star Wars had taken over my life and it was also rare to miss that title. Our introduction to Evanier and Aragones’ Groo the Wanderer started with issue #7 of their Pacific Comics run, but once it was published by Marvel I didn’t miss an issue in the first three years. This month’s review of the comics of May 1983 reminded me to stay on the lookout for the seven issues I’m missing from Pacific’s Groo run.

4 thoughts on “Off the Spinner Rack: May 1983”

I also used to go to Heroes World in the White Plains Galleria in the 1980s, at least when I could convince my parents to take me there. I have vivid memories of getting my first Star Wars comic book there. It was issue #87, and that actually came out in May 1984, one year after all of these issues here.

That whole run of Doctor Strange is excellent- the doc against Dracula with the help of the Avengers (##60-62). What an amazing month. I always think the 1970s was Marvel’s heyday but this shows how amazing the early 80s were too.
Did poor John Byrne ever sleep? He drew three issues here and

I agree, Alastair, that was an amazing month for Marvel, and the early 80’s gave us some great stories. As much as I enjoyed Byrne’s run on X-Men with Claremont and Austin, his art in Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight are still my personal favorites of his work.